In U.S. Pat. No. 2,447,671 describes a bearing device of this kind is described in which a high-speed ball bearing is lubricated by means of an oil mist. However, the hereby known bearing device is complicated and comprises many parts. Moreover, the aforesaid means in that bearing device for creating an oil mist of lubricating oil from the reservoir and causing the oil mist to flow past and in lubricating contact with the ball bearing takes the form of a impeller disc which rotates with the shaft, extends down into the reservoir and flings oil out into an air flow, thereby causing undesirable heating of the lubricating oil.
The object of the present invention is to provide a simple and compact bearing device in which is disposed a closed lubricating oil system which makes reliable and maintenance-free lubrication during the life of the bearing device possible without unnecessary heating and contamination of the lubricating oil. A particular object of the invention is, to achieve this in a bearing device used for rotatably supporting a rotor in a centrifugal separator and in a method for rotatably supporting a rotor in a centrifugal separator, entailing extra high requirements for the bearing device and its lubrication.